Appliance for drying, finishing, and stretching the legs of slacks and trousers



21, i3. 5. v, MAY MW APPLIANCE FOR DRYING. FINISHING, AND STRETCHING THE LEGS OF SLACKS AND TROUSERS Filed Oct. 4, 1937 1 \\\\\;\\*i w 6a I 41 10 Wf y.

INVENTOR, Samwel, yMdWMay' BY ATTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 21, 1939 APPLIANCE FOR DRYING, FINISHING, AND STRETCHING THE LEGS F SLACKS AND TROUSERS Samuel Vander May, Little Falls, N. J. Application October 4, 1937, Serial No. 167,134

2 Claims.

When certain generally tubular parts of gar ments of cotton, linen or the like thin fabric, having been washed and thus or otherwise wetted, have to be pressed in a pressing machine difiiculty is met with in the effort to prevent the wet material from undergoing vagrant undulating on the buck of such machine and thereupon being unintentionally creased by the machine wherever such undulating happens to be left. The attendant has heretofore usually spent considerable time before the machine is closed in the effort to smooth out the part to be pressed, and even then the vagrant and unintended creasing is likely to occur on the pressing. For instance, in creasing the legs of a trousers known as slacks, the object being to form only longitudinal front and rear creases in each leg, the attendant finds it always difiicult in the case of the material of slacks quite to smooth the leg and keep it so until the pressing occurs, wherefore the unintended and vagrant creasing is likely to be formed on the pressing. (This condition is usually unlikely to be encountered in the case of wool or thick material.) When the materialis more or less dry it is less likely to be troublesome in the way indicated than when it is wet, but it should of course be at least somewhat wet in the portions intended to be creased in order to effect or at least perfect such creasing.

What I aim to accomplish by this invention is such a pre-treatment of the indicated part of a garment that little time need be wasted by the attendant in the effort to avoid the unintentioned and vagrant creasing thereof when the garment undergoes the pressing. In carrying out this object I provide a novel buck 'so constructed. that when a moistened trousers leg or other tubular garment part is fitted there- 40 over with the buck body heated there will be a substantially uniform drying of the whole of certain hereinafter defined segments thereof while another hereinafter defined segment between the first two (usually two such segments alternating with the first two) will be left substantialy uniformly moist.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the buck;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view thereof on line 2-2,

Fig. 1, and shows the leg of a pair of slacks in broken outline;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan of the tubular core of the buck;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view in about the plane 4-4, Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken between the body of the buck and a bar 6 in Fig. 4 and parallel with the latter.

The body portion of the buck shown is indicated at I and consists of a casting, say of aluminum. The body portion should be bored for the passage of steam and since aluminum is likely to be porous and allow steam leakage the casting of the body portion is effected with the unit shown in Fig. 3 as a core. This unit com- 0 prises three pipes 2 and 33. Each of the pipes ii-3 has one end formed to a single bevel extending clear across the pipe; the pipe 2 is formed at one end with converging bevels. The three pipes are welded together as shown in 15 said figure to form said unit and they all communicate with each other. The other ends of the three pipes are adapted to be connected with pipes (not shown) extending from a steam generator so as to form therewith a steam circulating system, and they are shown protruding from the body portion I for this purpose. The steam may enter via pipe 2 and leave via pipes 3.

Secured to the larger end of the body portion is a plate 3 provided with legs 5 preferably so proportioned that when they rest on the floor they will support the buck in the inclined position shown in Fig. 1, thus to facilitate application thereto and removal therefrom of the legs of, say, a pair of slacks, one at a time.

At each side of the body portion of the buck and in the central plane of its major transverse dimension is means, extending lengthwise of such body portion, to maintain the leg of a pair of slacks, for instance (when telescoped over said body and means), in distended state and with diametrically opposite portions of such leg which extend lengthwise of said body portion out of contact therewith. In the present example this means takes the form of bars 6 each of which is here not only supported, as will appear, so that they may yield toward the body but is also flexible. At intervals along each narrow side the body portion is formed with cavities l and for each of these there is a cover, here in the form of a plate 8 common to all the cavities and which may be regarded as a part of the body in that it is fixedly secured to the body proper, as by screws 9. The cover has a slot Ill over each cavity and extending lengthwise of the body. Each bar has a series of lateral studs 6a which project through the respective slots into the cavities, and each has a cotter pin I I separating two washers I2 on the stud, the outer washer bearing against the plate 8 and 55 the inner washer assuming the pressure of a spring l3 arranged in and abutting the bottom of the cavity. The slots ID are present to permit the corresponding bar to flex without binding of the studs 6a in the plate. Each bar is of limited width, relatively to the body, in a dimension through the plane of the bars. When the leg of a slack is therefore telescoped over the buck and held thereby in distended state as shown in Fig. 2, whereas each portion a of such le will lie fiat against the adjoining and broader and here rounded face of the body (each such face having each of its longitudinal margins defining a shoulder ac on the body portion of the buck) its portions 11 will stand arched over the bars and out of contact with said body.

Given any tubular garment part to be ultimately pressed so as to present diametrically opposite longitudinal creases, as a leg of a pair of slacks, the apparatus shown and described is well adapted to be used in the performance of the novel method hereinafter claimed. Thus: The leg of a pair of slacks, for instance, may be telescoped over the buck and thus maintained distended (in such case circumferentially) and then, the leg having been wetted as in a washing previous to being so positioned, while it is still so distended on the buck, the drying takes place, it being assumed that steam has been admitted to the buck. In this drying step the drying heat is applied more immediately to those diametrically opposite longitudinal segments, as a, of the leg which are in contact with the broader faces of the buck than it is to the remaining longitudinal segments a. Consequently there will be a pressing or setting of the segments a in a form, such as characterizes any hot-pressed or ironed fabric, which will permit the attendant to arrange the segments a. on the buck of the pressing machine, on removal of the garment thereto, with appreciably reduced tendency of the material of the leg to undulate and hence to cause the unintended and vagrant creases to be formed when the pressing machine is closed; and besides, it being assumed that the leg is removed from the buck of my apparatus while the segments a are still wet or damp, the segments a will be in a state adapted for the longitudinal creasing thereof in the pressing machine.

The buck is characterized by means, as the bars 6, extending lengthwise of and in substantially opposite relation to each other relatively to its body I, which are movable (at least as to one of them) toward and from and elastically resisted against movement toward the body so as not only to accommodate garment tubular parts of somewhat different cross-sectional dimensions but to aid the attendant in establishing the distension. Each of said means is in the form. of a flexible bar so that it may bend subject to the particular form of any such part. The bar is of less width than the body of the buck is thick mainly to insure contact of the segments a of said part with the broader surfaces of said body.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. A buck for the purpose described including, with an elongated body adapted to be heated, elongated means, extending lengthwise of said body, to maintain a moistened tubular garment part, when telescoped over said body and means, in distended state, said means including portions offset from each other lengthwise of the body and independently movable toward and from the body and limited thereby against movement therefrom, and elastic devices opposing movement of the respective portions toward said body.

2. A buck for the purpose described including, with an elongated body adapted to be heated and having two broad lengthwise-extending faces facing away from each other and substantially conforming in width with said body and each having its longitudinal margins in the same plane spaced from the plane occupied by the margins of the other face, separate means, also extending lengthwise of and spaced from said body and arranged in a plane midway between the first two planes and dividing the body into substantially counterpart portions respectively having said faces, for maintaining a moistened tubular garment part, when telescoped over said body and means, in distended state, said body providing longitudinal shoulders co-incident with said margins and the two such shoulders adjoining each of said means being equally spaced therefrom and each of said means being wholly between the first two planes and formed to maintain a sharp bend in such garment part.

SAMUEL VANDER MAY. 

